Organizing for Bachmann

Tom Beaumont writes up the first day of Michele Bachmann's Iowa bus trip, and underscores her biggest problem as the Ames Straw Poll draws near - her sudden popularity heavily outweighing her organizational strength to date for an event that is a major test of just that:

Beginning her first sustained campaign trip to Iowa as an announced candidate, Bachmann introduced herself to audiences from Iowa City to Des Moines in a new campaign bus emblazoned with her name. She spent much of Saturday posing for pictures and signing autographs rather than in meetings with key GOP activists.

"I have every confidence our team is going to deliver," Bachmann told The Associated Press after meeting about 100 supporters and politically curious Iowans at a stop in Marshalltown. "I am going to be here in Iowa campaigning all through July."

Proof that her Iowa campaign was still coming together met Bachmann in Iowa City, where she met about 100 weekend breakfast regulars and Republican activists at the Bluebird Diner near the University of Iowa. Local resident Sheila Reiland told Bachmann's campaign chairman in the crowded diner that she signed up last week on Bachmann's website to volunteer but had heard nothing from any campaign staff.

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Bachmann's team is moving to capitalize on her strength with key swaths of conservative voters, evangelicals and home-schoolers among them. The campaign also appears to be headed toward a TV ad buy in markets within driving distance of Ames.

But organization - and an ability to capitalize on the intensity her supporters feel about her - is a key factor. And as of now, the top-tier hopeful whose struggles with voters and with donors have earned major headlines, Tim Pawlenty, still has the strongest organization in the state.